Capturing Wild Goats

Previously, whenever Lin Fan followed the hunt, he and Big Ox had only been responsible for driving small prey around the outskirts. So he still knew little about many matters concerning the hunting party.

This small mountain village lay between several great mountains. The surrounding mountains appeared, by Lin Fan's estimate, to stand several hundred meters taller than the village. They were not the steep, sheer kind of mountains.

The hunting party often went to the several mountains beside the village. Though these mountains did not look large, it would still take an entire day to make a circuit around one.

Thus, the hunting party generally went to one mountain a day, then another the next day, rotating among the several mountains.

From Uncle Wang's introduction, Lin Fan learned that the prey on these mountains mainly consisted of goats, wild boars, pheasants, and many rabbits.

The largest prey the hunting party usually caught was goats. Their usual method was digging traps—square, deep pits in the ground, then placing fresh grass or wild fruit over them.

They would lure the goats into the traps, then kill them.

Wild boars, however, were not so easy to catch. Their hides were thick and tough. Even if they fell into a trap, they remained ferociously dangerous.

A wild boar's hide was extraordinarily resilient. It was difficult for the hunting party to spear a boar to death inside a trap. And once wounded, a boar became even more violent, constantly using its tusks to wreck the deep pit trap.

If left alone, the boar would almost always destroy the trap in the end and escape. The hunting party would have wasted a trap for nothing and would have to dig another.

But if they kept stabbing it from the side with long spears, the boar could easily leap out. That would result in rather serious casualties.

From Uncle Wang's account, Lin Fan realized that the wild boars in this world seemed capable of jumping remarkably high. If they could not quickly pierce the boar's hide and kill it in the pit, it would be extremely dangerous.

"But now that we have you, Lin Fan, we can make the traps larger and use them to catch wild boars. With your strength, you'll definitely be able to spear a boar to death in the trap quickly."

Uncle Wang said happily as he led everyone to inspect the various traps.

Whenever they spotted pheasants or rabbits along the way, they used the bows in their hands to shoot them. But such prey was generally only the scraps of a hunt; the main harvest still came from the wild goats caught in traps.

After reaching a flat area halfway up the mountain, Uncle Wang waved for everyone to stop.

"This land is fairly flat, and wild boars often roam here. There's an acorn grove nearby, so the boars come here often."

After Uncle Wang marked out an area, everyone began digging traps.

As for why they did not dig in the oak grove itself, Uncle Wang explained that the trees there were too dense. The ground was packed with tangled roots, making traps very difficult to construct. There were also no obvious landmarks, making it hard to mark the traps' locations.

There were only weeds and shrubs in this flat area. Lin Fan had wanted to go help as well, but Uncle Wang told him to rest first and conserve his energy. Once they encountered prey and needed to kill it, they would still need Lin Fan's strength.

In his previous life, Lin Fan had spent more than half his time either at home or at work. Since he was rather reclusive by nature, he rarely went traveling. Looking at the white clouds drifting past between the treetops and the impossibly blue sky,

Lin Fan felt as though he had entered a world straight out of a comic. Though he wanted to lie down, seeing everyone nearby digging with all their might, he could only twitch the corner of his mouth before deciding to wander around and see whether there was anything he could help with.

He could also test and become more familiar with the strength of his Skin Tempering Realm.

Lin Fan ran through the woods at full speed and found that he seemed to have become much faster as well. If he launched a surprise ambush after lying in wait, he wondered whether he could catch a wild goat.

He would only know after testing it when he encountered a goat. And with his immense strength, once he caught one, he only needed to lift it up and slam it down hard.

Or, to be safer, he could throw his long spear like a javelin. Perhaps he could kill a wild goat from afar.

Once the traps were finished, Lin Fan told Uncle Wang what he had in mind. Uncle Wang thought it was a good idea. Ordinary people could not throw long spears far enough to wound wild goats, but with Lin Fan's strength, perhaps he truly could.

Even if he could not pierce through one, as long as he wounded it and made it bleed, they could track it all the way. They would no longer have to wait bitterly as before for goats to fall into traps.

A day passed in the blink of an eye.

With Lin Fan joining them, the hunting party's gains were far greater than before.

Though they had not yet caught a wild boar, they had caught two additional goats.

After Lin Fan sneaked close to a herd of wild goats, he wounded one with his long spear. Then he injured another goat's leg with a stone.

Lin Fan then led the hunting party in pursuit of the two wounded goats, eventually capturing both of them.

Lin Fan discovered that his full-speed running pace in the forest was not much slower than a wild goat's pace through the mountains. Perhaps the mountain terrain restricted the goats' speed. This discovery delighted Lin Fan enormously.

This would undoubtedly raise his future hunting success rate by a great deal.

The hunting party had achieved a rare bumper harvest. The last time they had caught a goat was more than ten days ago, and they had caught only one then.

To thank everyone for looking after him these past days, Lin Fan kept only one goat, intending to sell it in a town outside in exchange for silver and grain. He slaughtered the other goat, cut it up, and distributed it among everyone.

Lin Fan took two large goat legs for himself. He gave all the rest to the members of the hunting party. Uncle Wang wanted Lin Fan to take more goat meat, but Lin Fan and his sister could not eat much, and they would be going up the mountain to hunt again tomorrow, where they could catch new prey.

Though the village's hunting party had only eight or nine people, there were several dozen people in total once the elderly, weak, women, and children were included. So Lin Fan still insisted on sharing it with everyone.

The other goat, though injured, had not died. The village hunting party tied its hooves with rope and shut it in the sheepfold, intending to trade it for grain, other supplies, or silver when they went to the town outside.

Lin Fan was still unfamiliar with such matters, so he planned to leave Uncle Wang and the others to arrange them.

Though Lin Fan had now broken through to the Skin Tempering Realm, he did not particularly want to go to the town anytime soon. Although he had fled far enough away, it would be safer to wait a while longer before going out.

Lin Fan happily carried the two goat legs, humming an unknown little tune as he walked home. Holding the prey he had caught himself, an inexplicable sense of accomplishment welled up in his heart.

From far away, he saw his younger sister waving as she ran toward him. Her two little braided pigtails bobbed up and down as she ran.

His younger sister, Lin Ruoruo, reached out, wanting to take one of the large goat legs from Lin Fan's hand.

Lin Fan lifted his hand and dodged aside, then rubbed his sister's head with the back of his hand.

"Be good, Ruoruo. Did you stay obediently at home today?"

"I did, I did, Brother. I stayed at home all day and didn't go anywhere."